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Emerald Coast Constructors, Inc. employee, Hilson Ragas, puts up the window shutters on the 10,000th home strengthened by REBUILD Northwest Florida. This milestone will cap over seven years of efforts by REBUILD to apply FEMA grants to the fortification of single-family homes in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

REBUILD Northwest Florida Chief Executive Officer, Garrett Walton, helps to dedicate the 10,000th area home the organization has help to harden against hurricane strength winds. The 10,000th home belongs to Chip and Tina Otwell. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Pensacola residents Tina and Chip Otwell are the 10,000th homeowners that REBUILD Northwest Florida has helped by strengthening their home against hurricane force winds. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Government, local, and civic leaders congratulate Tina and Chip Otwell, center, on being the 10,000th homeowners that REBUILD Northwest Florida has help to protect their homes against hurricane force winds during the organization's seven-year history. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Emerald Coast Constructors, Inc. employee, Hilson Ragas, puts up the window shutters on the 10,000th home strengthened by REBUILD Northwest Florida. This milestone will cap over seven years of efforts by REBUILD to apply FEMA grants to the fortification of single-family homes in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Emerald Coast Constructors, Inc. employee, Hilson Ragas, puts up the window shutters on the 10,000th home strengthened by REBUILD Northwest Florida. This milestone will cap over seven years of efforts by REBUILD to apply FEMA grants to the fortification of single-family homes in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

REBUILD Northwest Florida Chief Executive Officer, Garrett Walton, helps to dedicate the 10,000th area home the organization has help to harden against hurricane strength winds. The 10,000th home belongs to Chip and Tina Otwell. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

REBUILD Northwest Florida Chief Executive Officer, Garrett Walton, helps to dedicate the 10,000th area home the organization has help to harden against hurricane strength winds. The 10,000th home belongs to Chip and Tina Otwell.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com, Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo

On a lawn in Mallory Heights on Tuesday, founders of REBUILD Northwest Florida celebrated a huge milestone: fortifying the 10,000th home in a hurricane mitigation program using federal dollars.

It's a mission they never envisioned when the community leaders met over a bottle of wine in September 2004 to mull over how to get the community back on its feet in the wake of Hurricane Ivan that laid waste to the area.

"A lot of people were damaged by the hurricane who simply could not afford to get their homes back in order," said Ed Gray, a founder and REBUILD board of trustee member. "A lot of wonderful groups, primarily faith-based organizations, were coming into town. There needed to be some coordination ... feeding and housing them. So we tried to fill the void to be a coordinating group for a bunch of volunteers to do good work."

Once that job was over, they discovered they could refocus their efforts to help homeowners prevent storm damage through the mitigation program.

"We saw another mission for us to pursue, and now we're looking at 10,000 houses," Gray said.

The program allows owners of single-family homes to receive money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover 75 percent of the costs — about $9,400 — to strengthen their homes against hurricane force winds.

"We are very excited to celebrate this milestone," REBUILD CEO Garrett Walton said. "There are now 10,000 homeowners and their families who have an increased level of protection in the event of hurricane force storms. It's our mission to help strengthen homes across the Gulf Coast, and we are proud to see so many homeowners take advantage of the available funding from FEMA to make their homes safer."

Many of the families won't have to face evacuating in the next storm, he said.

Rebuild has secured $71 million in grants to fortify homes in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties since 2007. It just received an additional $11 million to continue the program.

Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, was a special guest at the ceremony at the home of Chip and Tina Otwell, whose 38-year-old home was armored with such things as roof braces, storm shutters and a hurricane resistant front door and garage door.

Fugate applauded REBUILD's efforts and said the mitigation grants are a wise investment of tax dollars.

"We'll continue to invest," he said. "But it should not be the only way we prepare for the future."

He strongly urged REBUILD founders and other community leaders in attendance to be just as proactive about where and how homes are built in the future as they are with mitigation.

"Since I've been with FEMA, I think I have dealt with what has been described as a 100-year event once a month," he said. "As the number of storms and events (grows), and given the population that's grown along the Gulf Coast, we have to build for the future."

Building with storm resiliency in mind will reduce the number of homes that will need federal assistance to recover in the future and will "improve their insurability," he said.

Fugate noted that through the efforts of REBUILD, he'd expect to see a "patch work" of blue tarp roofs in the area after another major hurricane instead of the entire area blanketed in the blue roofs, an iconic testament to the widespread destruction Ivan left in its wake.

The ceremony, whose speakers ironically sought shade from the blazing sun under a blue tarp, was punctuated with much praise for FEMA's support and for the community leaders whose vision blossomed into fortifying the community.

"It's been a longtime successful venture," said banker Buzz Ritchie, who helped establish the nonprofit with other community leaders, including Walton and Carolyn Appleyard of the Appleyard Agency, and many others. "Garret Walton was the one who had the vision to find funds to do the mitigation to prevent damage in subsequent hurricanes."

The Otwells, who paid 25 percent of the cost — $2,100 — to retrofit their home, say they'll rest easier during future hurricanes.

"We feel much safer, without a doubt," Chip Otwell said. "During Ivan, we had trees down and roof damage, like so many other people. We looked into this and felt it would be beneficial to bring our home up to code."

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Video: REBUILD Northwest Florida celebrates major milestone

How to apply

To find out if you're eligible for the REBUILD program, call 497-7024 or visit www.rebuildnwf.org.